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Whitehall is a road in
Westminster in London, England.It is the
main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards traditional Charing Cross, now at the southern end of Trafalgar
Square and marked by the statue of Charles I, which is often regarded as
the heart of London. Recognised as the centre of HM
Government, the road is lined with government
departments/ministries; "Whitehall" is therefore also frequently
used as a metonym for overall UK
governmental administration, as well as being a geographic name for
the surrounding district.

The name
is taken from the vast Palace of Whitehall that used to occupy the area but which was largely
destroyed by fire in 1698. Whitehall was originally a wide
road that ran up to the front of the palace. Trafalgar
Square was built at its northern extremity in the early
19th century. The southernmost part by Parliament Square is
Parliament Street, but there is no longer any
obvious distinction between the two on the ground. Combined, the
streets cover a total distance of about 0.6 mile (1 km).

History

Parliament
Street was a small side road alongside the palace leading to the
Palace of
Westminster. When the palace was destroyed and its ruins
demolished, Parliament Street was widened to match Whitehall's
width. The present appearance of the street is largely the result
of 19th century redevelopment.

The
Banqueting
House, built in 1622 by Inigo
Jones, is the only surviving portion of the former
palace.Charles I was
executed on 30 January 1649 on a scaffold erected outside the
building, stepping onto it from a first-floor window. Royalists
still commemorate the regicide annually on
the anniversary of the execution.

The name
Whitehall is often used as a metonym to refer to the government of
the United Kingdom or senior ministers (such as the prime minister and other cabinet members), in
the same way the Kremlin refers to the
Russian/Soviet governments,
or White
House refers to the executive branch of the government of
the United
States.

Downing
Street leads off the south-west end of Whitehall, just
above Parliament Street. It is closed to the public at both
ends by security gates erected in 1989. These have since been
supplemented by a further gated barrier around three metres outside
the main gates.

During recent years, significant security measures have been put in
place along Whitehall for the protection of the government
buildings that line the street. This is partly due to a £25 million pound
'streetscape' scheme undertaken by the Westminster
City Council, which was agreed just months before the 2005
London bombings. This has caused significant disruption
along Whitehall, but the building programme appears to be coming to
an end, with wider pavements, better lighting and hundreds of
concrete and steel security barriers now in place.

External links

Gallery

Image:Whitehall1799.jpg|In 1799 many of the sites now occupied by
large government buildings were covered with terraced houses and
Parliament Street had not been widened.Image:Taxi_and_Monuments_on_Whitehall.jpg|A
London cab zooms between two monuments on
Whitehall, between Horse Guards and
10 Downing
Street

Notes

John Michael Lee, George William Jones, June Burnham, At
the Centre of Whitehall: Advising the Prime Minister and
Cabinet, p. 42. St. Martin's Press, 1998. ISBN 0312177305